LEBANON, Ill. - The William Jewell men's basketball team suffered a 68-64 setback on the road at McKendree University on Thursday night. The Cardinals drop to 11-11 on the season and 8-6 in conference action. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Jewell went nearly three minutes without their first point before Jordan Jermain got a jumper in the paint to break the ice. The two teams went back-and-forth early until Isaac Patterson hit a three with 10:42 to play, starting a 9-3 run to push the Cardinals in front 22-16.
• The Bearcats countered with 17-4 run of their own to take a seven point lead but Mason Alexander hit a three with 40 seconds remaining in the half to send the Cardinals to break trailing by four, 33-2. 
• Jewell came out of the intermission and quickly knotted things up at 37 after buckets from Jermain, Kobe McKinley and Grant Stubbs. McKendree responded again with an 11-4 spurt as the Cards went more than three minutes without scoring. Trailing 48-41, McKinley swiped a steal and scored to spark the Jewell run as a turnout layup from Jevaughn Ferguson tied the game at 54-all seven minutes later. 
• Neither team trailed by more than four over the final eight minutes as the Bearcats went back in front by one after a free throw from Milos Vicentic. A steal from Patterson led to a Jermain score on the other end with 1:07 to play to put Jewell on top 63-62, but McKendree managed to get back-to-back layups with less than a minute to play to retake the lead for good.  

KEY STATS

• Jermain scored a game high 25 points on 9-of-17 from the floor while Alexander and McKinley each grabbed 10. 
• The latter pair, along with Patterson and Heri Tshiyoyo, all grabbed seven rebounds a piece as the Cardinals out-rebounded McKendree 41-32 with nine offensive boards. 

UP NEXT
The Cardinals will look to get back on track on Saturday as they take on Maryville at 3 p.m. in St. Louis.